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February 21st, 2002, 01:26 PM
#41
Inactive Member
to be blunt after thinking about it and to state the bloody obvious
People make films because PEOPLE WATCH FILMS !
end of story
Chance
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Is it just me or does anyone else get nervous when entering a lift with a heavily pregnant women in it ?
www.5ylac.s5.com
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February 21st, 2002, 02:22 PM
#42
Inactive Member
The Merriam Webster dictionary puts my point quite well...
`Entertain` it says is synomynous with `Amuse`. `Amuse` is "to entertain or occupy in a light, playful, or pleasant manner"
"synonyms AMUSE, DIVERT, ENTERTAIN mean to pass or cause to pass the time pleasantly. ...ENTERTAIN suggests supplying amusement or diversion by specially prepared or contrived methods <a magician entertaining children at a party>."
It would seem that some have perverted this dictionary definition into some all-encompassing word which they can apply to anything they see and like. Saving Private Ryan was a great film. It was in no way `entertaining` it was `harrowing` and `engaging`.... but not `entertaining`.
Entertainment films and the entertainment industry are aimed at amusing audiences. In my personal opinion (which I'm not intending to foist upon anyone) I find `The Evil Dead` to be mildly amusing, a diversion for my mind to toy with for a couple of hours. The original `Vanishing`, however, gave me sleepless nights.
There are some who love the theatricality of film (American Beauty) or the light hearted fun of it. Good on them, but that's not me. I detest theatricality and light-heartedness... I like my films dark gritty starkly-real and disturbing. You'd be missing the whole point if you sat in the audience with a grin on your face being `entertained` by the whole thing. When I saw `Lost Highway` this woman infront laughed the whole way through it?!?!
As a quick note I never said art couldn't be entertaining or entertainment couldn't be art. I just don't put `entertainment` very high on my list of priorities. Right at the top is `engagement`. A film can be thoroughly engaging without being entertaining.
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February 21st, 2002, 02:31 PM
#43
Inactive Member
Quoting a definition from a dictionary. You so funny Hairbrain.
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February 21st, 2002, 03:35 PM
#44
Inactive Member
Entertainment isn't a dirty word.
I tackle intense philisophical and emotional issues in my films, but I want people to enjoy watching them, accessible to as many people as possible-not just art house twats. I'm certainly never going to make any shallow popcorn effects based films, but I would like to make a monumental epic sci-fi movie.
hairbrain-good luck in your quest for a life, but be careful you don't wake up in 20 years and realise it was right in front of you the whole time. If you've read a book called "Siddharta" by Herman Hesse you'll see where I'm coming from.
peace out, brother.
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February 21st, 2002, 03:56 PM
#45
Inactive Member
Tell us about YOUR movies Mr-Brain.
Obviously some peole want better things in life, but you are basically talking about yourself. For all intents and purposes you are the burger flipper, at the bottom of the film hierarchy. Maybe you like it now, but you want more. You want to make films that "engage." Ambition within reason is good, a basic human attribute.
I realise i'm in a good position Mr Brain. But some people don't want to make fucking films. Lots of my best friends go to all sorts of uni courses from finance to science to politics. And they're fascinating people man, amazing.
As for popcorn movies, well I saw Oceans 11 last night and was entertained. Not "haunted" BUT i AINT GONNA WATCH CITIZEN kANE EVERYDAY. Theres a difference between crap hollywood like pearl harbour and good hollywood like said film.
I make the films I wanna make. So far I havent wrote a script that hollywood would go near, but maybe one day I will. I don't have any lofty pretentions, I just write what is natural for me.
Right now I'm in pre for a quirky off beat effort, next up a vampire thing, after that video art. Next sept a documentary.
I'm fascinated by genre. I'd like to try as many as my writing range allows. I hate rom-coms so it makes me want to write one even more. Just to see if I could do a better job.
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I can't believe I sold my image rights for a pint of Guinness!
[This message has been edited by Generic Skinhead (edited February 21, 2002).]
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February 21st, 2002, 05:27 PM
#46
Inactive Member
Amusing-entertaining films can be BOLD and take entertainment in new directions....
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Platoon, Lambs, the Deer Hunter...all -engaging. Not a million and one laughs, but they are entertaining. They are entertainment - dark entertainment - can't a film be haunting and entertaining?
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Jay & Silent Bob DO NOT LICK BALLS.
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February 21st, 2002, 05:43 PM
#47
Inactive Member
I guess you'd class `Jacobs Ladder` in that territory. That was really a great twisted up film... mind you I was trippin at the time!
I guess I'm just one of those weirdo's who actually loves films which others fall asleep to. `Blackboards` was fascinating (though not one of my all-time faves). It was hardly what you'd class as entertaining... but it was pretty mesmerising. I think that's the problem alot of people have with Kubrick's 2001. That's a really great film but it doesn't really go out of it's way to entertain you. So alot of people hate it `too slow` `too boring` they say. But once you calm down and start taking the film at the pace Kubrick wants you to take it at... it's mesmerising.
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February 21st, 2002, 06:06 PM
#48
Senior Hostboard Member
I can just imagine them rolling around in the aisles in fits of entertainment while watching Saving Private Ryan.
Schindler's List ... ? Entertained by the tthe whole Nazi Holocaust thing are we?
I think when 'entertainment' crosses the boundaries of taste, that is when it becomes crass, and viewed as entertainment by crass and kitsch individuals.
Those two films do not set out to entertain, I mean did spielberg sit down and think ... what a damn entertaining idea all this world war 2 stuff is ... ?
People SHOULD read the dictionary more often. From misunderstandings great rifts are formed.
But Mr Chance is right ... if there was no market place for film, no one but the die-hards would be making films.
Because spielberg has such guaranteed audiences he is able to take some 'riskier' subject matter and portray it to said wider audiences.
That does not mean it is entertainment.
The Chuckle Brothers are entertainment, Saving Private Ryan should be viewed as perhaps 'edutainment', but in this day of the first person shooter, I guess hordes of soldiers beiong mown down is fair play as entertainment to the dumb and dumber within our society. I just hope you are teenagers and not fully fledged humans yet cos then at least you'd have an excuse.
Just remember that Saving Private Ryan is still TAME compared to THE TRUTH of those events, and the soldiers portrayed were fighting for your FREEDOM not your fucking ENTERTAINMENT!!!
Lest we forget!
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February 21st, 2002, 06:08 PM
#49
Inactive Member
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, helvetica, sans serif">quote:</font><HR>I guess I'm just one of those weirdo's who actually loves films which others fall asleep to. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I only fall asleep (at the Cinema or sat infront of my DVD player) when I watch poor movies?
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Jay & Silent Bob DO NOT LICK BALLS.
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February 21st, 2002, 06:25 PM
#50
Inactive Member
Entertainment does not specifically mean ?making people happy?.
Entertainment is something that amuses, pleases, or diverts....
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Jay & Silent Bob DO NOT LICK BALLS.
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